That Opera Rag

Album: Great American Composers (1909)
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Songfacts®:

  • According to Irving Berlin biographer Charles Hamm, between 1907 and 1914 he wrote 42 songs with his boss Ted Snyder, and in 1909 was hired as staff lyricist. "That Opera Rag" was one of their collaborations, Snyder providing the music. Another Berlin biographer, Laurence Bergreen said of their attempts to write a hit ragtime song, "The variety was enough to make a ragtime purist gag." This distinctly inferior effort is part rag, part coon song, but the year after it was published Berlin had a massive hit with "Alexander's Ragtime Band". >>
    Suggestion credit:
    Alexander Baron - London, England

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